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The Language
This language is fictional, spoken by tribes of people in a desert climate. It's minimalistic, at least as far as the sounds go. But the grammar is very different from English, nearly the complete opposite. Phonology Consonants Note: dental nasals and stops are fused with their alveolar counterparts; there is no phonemic difference between dental nasals and stops and alveolar nasals and stops. Legal Consonant Clusters Vowels Underlined vowels are weak vowels, and are only possible with vowel harmony. Vowel Harmony Syllables that follow a stressed syllable of a word must have the same openness as that syllable. For example, if the stressed syllable contains the vowel /a/, then the only other possible vowels that follow are /ɔ/ and /ɛ/, until the word ends. Nasal harmony is also possible. When a vowel precedes a nasal consonant it becomes nasalized. The following vowels will also be nasalized if they are only separated by nasals and sonorants. Nasal harmony ends at the end of a word. Tones The tones are classified by pitch into high and low (regular). * A high-tone vowel/nasal following a regular tone will make an ascending tone * A regular-tone vowel/nasal following a high tone will make a descending tone * Nasal consonants also have tone Allophony * Words beginning with vowels must have a glottal stop preceding the vowel * /ɾ/ as the final consonant of a syllable becomes /r/ or /r̥/ * If the first phoneme of a word is a stop, it becomes glottalized ** /t/ becomes /tʼ/ ** /k/ becomes /kʼ/ ** /q/ becomes /qʼ/ * Vowel changes by labialisation and palatalisation ** becomes Ci ** Cʲəj becomes Cii ** Cʷə becomes Cu ** Cʷəw becomes Cuu * Stop + Nasal = Ejective Nasal (within a word) * Stop + Nasal ≠ Ejective Nasal (in-between two words) Phonotactics (Nasal)(Consonant)(Semivowel)Vowel(Vowel)(Nasal//Sonorant) (N)©(S)V(V)® * This formula is the biggest possible syllable * A vowel must have a consonant or semivowel before it * Certain syllables can exist without vowels, such as nʔ Stress Lexical * Mora-timing * Nasals in-front of other consonants before a vowel in a syllable are treated as a separate syllable and receive their own timing * Long vowels and diphthongs are bimoraic (each vowel has an independent mora timing) * Determined by syllable structure ** CV(ː) = no stress ** CV(V) = light stress *** Can occur at the ends of most words, especially if they are long *** Makes single vowels longer *** Only the first vowel must be /e/, /a/ or /o/. *** Certain words, such as pronouns, or cases like NOM and ABS, always have light stress because they are usually at the end of words. They may have two different vowels together, but they must have the same degree of openness (closed or open) *** Doesn't follow vowel harmony *** This structure accounts for a consonantsemivowelvowel syllable structure as well ** ©V(V)© = heavy stress *** Random *** Only the first vowel must be /e/, /a/ or /o/. *** Vowels following these vowels must have the same degree of openness (closed or open) *** Causes vowel harmony (syllables following it must have the same degree of openness (closed or open)) *Order in word ** Generally in verb stems *** Very often at the beginning if there is a nasal consonant as an initial consonant (before vowel(s)) ** Random Prosodic * Initial words of a sentence (either the subject or the verb) * /qe/ in-front of the word to stress query about that word * High tones are pronounced higher than usual Grammar Derivational Morphology *This language is in-between fusional and agglutinative. This means that there are many morphemes used. Morphosyntactic Alignment *Nominative absolutive *Based on time (absolutive case (ABS) for past tense, nominative case (NOM) for present and future tense) **The ABS case represents something out of control, so it is used for past tense, because it is out of control **The opposite is true for the NOM case *Transitivity **Transitive sentences: NOM case used on agent & verb, ABS case used on direct object & verb **Intransitive sentences: NOM case and ABS case used interchangeably, both on subject and verb *Adjectives **These are formed by not putting the NOM or ABS case on a verb (more explained below) Here are the different sentence structures that nominative and absolutive cases can be in and the meanings they have when in them: Intransitive Sentences *subject-NOM noun **noun is noun **"I am a vase" *subject-ABS noun **noun was noun **"I was a vase" *subject-NOM verb **noun is adjective **"The bear is big" **This structure is very valuable because it removes the need for adjectives (just verbs are necessary) *subject-ABS verb **noun was adjective **"The bear was big" *subject-NOM verb-NOM **noun is/will verb **"The man walks" *subject-ABS verb-ABS **"The man walked" *etc. morpheme corresponding with subject-subject verb **with NOM case is/will be verb **"He is big" *etc. morpheme corresponding with subject-subject verb **with ABS case is adjective **"He was big" *verb-subject **with NOM case is/will verb **"He is sleeping" *verb-subject **with ABS case was verb **"He slept" *noun-subject **pronoun is/will be noun **"I am a horse" *noun-subject **pronoun was noun **"I was human" Transitive Sentences *subject-NOM object verb-NOM **noun tense verb noun **"The girl is looking at the bee" *subject-NOM object verb-NOM(PL) **noun tense verb noun-PL **"The girl is looking at the bees" *subject-NOM(PL) object verb-NOM(PL) **noun-PL tense verb noun-PL **"The bees are looking at the trees" *subject object-ABS verb-ABS **noun tense verb noun **"The girl was looking at the fish" *subject object-ABS verb-ABS(PL) **noun-PL tense verb noun **"The bees were looking at the fish" *subject object-ABS(PL) verb-ABS(PL) **noun-PL tense verb noun-PL **"The girl was looking at the bees" *subject-NOM object verb verb-NOM **noun verb adjective noun **"The dog sees the small rabbit" *subject verb object-ABS verb verb-ABS **adjective noun verb adjective noun **"The big dog saw the small rabbit" *subject-NOM object-PL verb-NOM **noun tense verb noun **"The dog meets bees" *subject object-ABS verb-ABS **noun tense verb noun **"The dog met bees" **This sentence structure shows that if the direct object is a plural, it can be shown using the plural form of the ABS case. *subject-NOM verb-NOM-object **noun tense verb with ABS case **"The bear sees her" *subject verb-ABS-object **noun tense verb with ABS case **"The bear saw her" **This structure is still experimental *verb-subject-object **with NOM case tense verb with ABS case **"He sees/will see me" *verb-subject-object **with ABS case tense verb with ABS case **"She saw her" **This sentence structure shows that pronouns can be stacked on a verb. The pronoun immediately following the verb is the subject, while the following pronoun is the direct object To be more specific about the future tense, the following structures can be used: *verb GEN-intention *verb GEN-expectation *verb GEN-plan *time of sentence Negation *Prefix /an/. Otherwise just /a/. This is just for nouns & adjectives. *The word /ótan/ is used for "no", which is used before nouns. Word Order *SVO or VSO depending on whether the subject or verb has prosodic stress. VSO by default. *Verb Phrase - Noun Phrase *Possessed Object Marker (GEN)/Demonstrative - Noun 1 *Noun 1 - Interrogative Determiners *Noun Phrase/Adjective Phrase - Noun 1 - Prepositional Phrase Gender Every noun has a gender that is set for it, despite the noun doing something against its set gender. Verbs, however, can be masculine or feminine depending on whether an action is unusual. The feminine gender is used when something is unusual (that sounds super sexist, but women do cause change by having babies...). Abstract things can also be split into masculine/feminine gender depending on whether they are unusual or mundane. Cases Morphosyntactic Cases Masculine Feminine *On Verb: masculine shows that the action is usual, while feminine shows that the action is unusual. Therefore: *The feminine case takes care of the inchoative aspect (while the masculine case basically states that it is not the inchoative aspect) Other Cases Pronouns Personal Pronouns Other Pronouns Possessives General prefix: tɑ~ *Used to show nouns that alter other nouns, like colour **e.g. "the blue shirt" **shirt prefix-blue *Used instead of "and" Pronouns *Head-marking *Prefix Ad-positions and Conjunctions Ad-positions are joined as a suffix to nouns. The thing they join to indicates that that thing is experiencing the ad-position. *Or - question particle qe **The question particle came from the word "truth, clarity, understanding", so it's like asking for clarification on a topic (e.g. "That is the reality?"). *And - genitive case *From verb roots **E.g. To be high - conjunction "above" *No word for "but". This can be represented by juxtaposition, e.g. Fridge is big boy is small *More than /kotjo/ *Less than /erəhéé/ Lexical Typology Motion events are conflated (fused) with types of direct objects. List of verbs */qotwoo/ to move something hard (rock by default) */mpat/ to move across something hard (rock by default) */ɾóo/ to move organic matter (wood by default) */waɾɛ́a/ to move towards organic matter/vital resources (including water) */waɾáp/ to move animate organisms (including humans) */worə́/ to go towards animate organisms */ntajɔɔ/ to move liquid (water by default) */manjar/ to move into liquid (water by default) */kotə́é/ to be beside/move with/follow something sacred */toreo/ to move across something powdery/broken/unstable/pebbly (sand by default) */ʔéɾəpjee/ to move something unpleasant */ʔartájó/ to move from something unpleasant */aratjáa/ to move wood onto a fireplace to burn (e.g. Stock) Copyright ©